Automatic vending-machine.



PATENTED FEB. 13, 1906.`

A. E. WYATT. AUTOMATIC VENDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION .FILED JUNE 17, 1905.

lUNITED STATES PATENT onrion.

ALBERT E. lWYATT, OF HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGN OR TO THE GREAT AMERICAN AUTOMATIC VENDING MACHINE COMPANY, OF HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 13, 1906.

Application filed June 17, 1905. Serial No. 265,668.

T0 all whom t maf/y concern: l j

Be it known that I, ALBERT E. WYATT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hoboken, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Vendin Machines, of which the following-is a speci'n cation.

This invention relates to automatic vending-machines, and has for an object to provide an improved device of this character wherein the package-delivery chute will be amply guarded 'from intrusion of any kind. The parts constituting the delivery portion thereof are so formed that they may be readily cast and assembled and wherein the lcoinoperating devices will receive coin from the chute 'and drop the coin before returning to their normal positions of rest. When out of such normal positions of rest, the parts will lock a coin which may be prematurely inserted in the chute from finding access to the till or to parts of the apparatus where it will not perform its work, thus preventing per sons unacquainted with the proper working of the machine from placing coins in the same at such a time that the coin will be lost and they blame the machine for their own ineX- perience in dropping a coin at such a time that the mechanism will not make use of such a coin in the ej ectment ofthe merchandise.

It will be seen that several coin-controlledapparatus units may be mounted u on a single base and housed in a single ca inet in a well-known manner and each such apparatus constituting an independent unit may be disl assembled from the machine without any relation to the other units, each one being capable of removal and replacement without reference to the others.

. The base-plate has lugs cast upon it which are adapted to position the side lates of the chute-chairs so that they may e properly positioned and held in position from lateral movement by a screw and plate, preventing perpendicular movement and longitudinal movement. One lug of course will position plates upon each side if cast in the proper position. The base-plate has certain holes or openings through it to make it lighter and accommodate various parts of the mechanism and has an opening for permitting the coin to pass from the coin-actuating devices into the till and also an opening leading to the till for the passage of spurious coin rejected and deflected by the magnet.

In the drawings accompanying and forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a broken-away portion of the base-plate, showing one unit of a coincontrolled and package-ejector mechanism embodying a form of my present invention mounted thereon. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a section of a form of front plate for the apparatus. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of an ejector and ej ector-actuator. Fig. 4 is a cross-section through one of the castings or side plates which constitute a package-chute chair, and Fig'. 5 is a detail of the ej ector-actuator in perspective.

The plate 7 will be mounted in some suitable framework or housing having below it some suitable form of till or other device for receiving coin employed in purchasing merchandise from the machine, several packages 8 of such merchandise being illustrated in dash and dotted lines in Fig. 1.

There are shown upon the base-plate a number of lugs 9, 10, and 11, adapted to position side plates 12 and 13which, together with certain portions 42 cast thereon, constitute a chair for supportinga suitable packagechute or storage-receptacle. One of these lates, as 13, has cast, provided said plate is formed by casting, integrally therewith a shelf or member 14, held by a lug 43 on the other plate, for the purpose of deflecting the package downward as it is ejected and also for the purpose of preventing access to the packages from the outside through the discharge-opening. Such side member also has cast thereon a web 15, embodying a pair of shelves 16 and 17, constituting a portion of the discharge-passage.

A shaft 18 is shown mounted in an elongated boss 19 (shown in dotted lines in Figl) and carrying fast upon it an ejector 20, adapted when the shaft is rocked to engage the lowest package and push the same forward between the shelves 14 and 15 when if the the movement is rapid the package will strike a face 21 on an abutment of the front plate 201 and deflect the package downward. The package will then pass from the shelves IOO 16 and 17"'and out through an opening 22 in the base-plate. The ejector of course will travel between the plates 12 and 13 and the end of the shaft 18 will project beyond the plate 13 andwill carry an ej ector-actuator 23,

which in the present instance has upon it an abutment 24 and an abutment 25, presently to be described.

The plates 12 and 13 are held in position between the lugs 9 9 and 10 10 and against the lug 11 and will be secured in place by means of a bar 26, resting upon abutments 27 on the res ective plates 12 and 13 and held in lace by means of a suitable screw. The ul -bar 30 has some convenient means by W `ch it may be taken hold of and drawn forward, it being guided by means of guidefaces upon it and upon the plate 13 and retracted by means of a suitable tensile spring. The castin 13 may have a lug 31 to act as a back-stop for the pull-bar, which pull-bar is shown as provided with an engaging abutment, in the present instance a lug 32, for engaging the lug 25 for returning the ejector to its normal position and for holding it in such position when returned.

The coin will be passed through a gageopening 35 in the front plate and will pass down the chute 350, striking the abutments formed by the ends of a permanent magnet 300. If the coin happens to be of a magnetic nature, it will roll across the end of the magnet and be deflected and thrown out through an opening in the side of the chute. Should, however, the coin be genuine, it will rebound from the endsiA of the magnet and drop down upon an abutment-face 36 on some suitable relatively stationary portion of the mechanism, in the present instance on the lug 31, carried by the plate 13, and occupying a position between the engaging faces on abutments 24 and 32 on the ejector-actuator and pull-bar, and upon the drawing forward of the pull-bar the ejector will pass through the bottom of the chute and engage the lowermost package and press the same forward over the shelf 16 and under the guard or shelf y14. The package will then, if the movement be rapid, engage the sloping face or abutment 21 upon the front plate and be directed downwardly, it falling upon the shelf 17 and passin to some suitable shelf or convenient point o deposit, where it may be readily received by the purchaser. The coin after leaving the chute will drop between the engaging faces upon the pull-bar and the ej ector-actuator. The coin will then rest upon the abutment 36. There being a certain amount of lay between the pull-bar and the actuator, t e pull-bar will be drawn forward a short distance before the faces on their respective abutments engage the coin, during which period the coin will rest upon the abutment 36. When, however, the coin is carried forward by the pull-bar, pushing before it the ej ector-actuator, it will ride off the top of such abutment and will u on the completion of the stroke of the pul -bar drop down into the till. If it does not drop immediately, a minute return movement of the pull-bar will, owing to the angle of the coin-engaging faces, drop it from their hold. Should the coin 'adhere to the engaging faces u on the pull-bar and the ej ector-actuator an be carried back by them toward their normal positions of rest, the coin will be enga ed by the abutment on lug 31 and be by it eed from the en aging faces which were carrying it, and before the parts assume their normal positions of rest such coin will be thrown down into the till. This will prevent a coin with adhesive material upon its edges sticking to the actuating-faces and the apparatus being operated several times by means of such one coin, whereby fraud would be perpetrated on the owners of the machine.

The pull-bar will carry a shelf 40, which when the parts are in the normal positions of rest will be out of the path of movement of the coin, so that the coin may find ready access to a position between the working engaging faces therefor; but u on the pull-bar being drawn forward, eit er while operating with a coin .or when ulled idly forward, the shelf will be imposed) in the path of movement of the coin from the chute, and should a coin be deposited in the chute while the pull-bar is drawn away from its normal position the shelf will prevent such coin passing out of the chute until the pull-bar is returned to its normal posit/ion and is in a position to operatively receive the coin.

' The webs 14 and 15 on one of the castings forming the chute-chair and the lower portion of the chute not only position the castings one relatively to the other, but form ledges for directing the packages in their proper path and also act as guards for preventing access to the machine for the purpose of fraudulently operating it.

It will be seen that by means of the lugs upon the base-plate and the relative shapes of the side plates, together with their positioning-webs, some suitable single fastening means, such as a screw and a bar, may be employed for holding the parts of each unit together and in their proper relation one to the other upon the base-plate.

Having described my invention, I claim- In a coin-controlled' apparatus, the combination with a ull-bar having a lug rovided with a foward y-facing abutment, o a shaft, an ejector mounted thereon, a plate mounted on the shaft carrying a rearwardly-facing 1 abutment the space between said oppositelyfacing abutments being normally wider than the diameter of the coin which it is intended the apparatus shall be operated with, means for retracting the pull-bar, an abutment on the said plate located at the rear of said lug IOO IIO

ISO

parts.

Signed at Nos. 9 to 15 Murray street, New York city, New York, this 14th day of June,

ALBERT E. WYATT. Witnesses:

FRED. J. DOLE, CHAs. LYON RUSSELL. 

